General of the Gods

Agrang is one of the great gods invoked in the Kherai, the central communal festival of Bathouism, in which the doudini (priestess-medium) dances the deeds of the deities before the sijou altar. He is characterised in the ethnographic literature as the general of the god-in-chief Bathoubwrai, leading the divine retinue, and in the systematised elemental theology of modern Bathouism he stands for water among the five constituent elements. He is regularly named together with Ailong and Khoila as the foremost attendants of the supreme god.

Domains

• war leadership
• water

Powers

• to marshal the hosts of the gods as commander of the supreme god

Relations

• subordinate to: Bathou BwraiAgrang is expressly described as the general of the god-in-chief Bathoubwrai and attends him in the Kherai worship.Kameswar Brahma, A Study of Socio-Religious Beliefs, Practices and Ceremonies of the Bodos, Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1992. (secondary)

Sources

• Agrang is a major Kherai deity of the Bodos, the general or commander of the supreme god Bathoubwrai, and in Bathou elemental doctrine the god associated with water.: Kameswar Brahma, A Study of Socio-Religious Beliefs, Practices and Ceremonies of the Bodos, Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1992. (secondary); Sekhar Brahma, Religion of the Boros and Their Socio-Cultural Transition: A Phenomenological Approach, Guwahati: DVS Publishers, 2006. (secondary)